Date-stamped : 17 Dec93 - 20:00 The Guardian 13 March 1993 - Sri Lanka promise England a good turn - David Hopps David Hopps in Colombo finds the hosts hugely enjoying their visitors' discomfort Sri Lanka's colonial history has made them quick to delight in all aspects of British eccentricity. That ensured rich amusement as soon as the Test and County Cricket Board's apoplexy over the dress standards of the England players on the tour began to filter through to here. ''You can promise the TCCB that at least the pitch will be well shaven,'' was the greeting from Michael de Zoysa, ground manager at the Sinhalese Sports Club yesterday, as he sheltered from a midday sun powerful enough to break the resolve of everyone apart from mad dogs and TCCB committeemen. English fallibility against the Indian spinners has not been lost on the Sri Lankans, who are determined to present them with an identical challenge. Turn by the third day, Michael? ''Third ball, I hope,'' he joked. At least, he seemed to be joking. Adieu, Kumble, Raju and Chauhan; greetings for the next week or so to Jayananda Warnaweera and Muttiah Muralidaran. There was an understandable glint in the eyes of the two Sri Lankan slow bowlers, and oft-times poker partners, as they planned no respite for England's beleaguered batsmen. ''We have watched videos of England in India and it has persuad- ed us that the spinners are our potential matchwinners,'' admit- ted Sri Lanka's captain, Arjuna Ranatunga. ''But we wish that England had played in Sri Lanka before the Indian tour. There has been an improvement among all their batsmen. By the end of the tour they were playing much more positively.'' Warnaweera and Muralidaran are a mystery to England. Neither figured in last year's World Cup or in Wednesday's day-night international, when Sri Lanka preferred the all-round skills of Ruwan Kalpage. They also made the briefest appearance yesterday in the nets. Keith Fletcher would not recognise either of them if they popped into his hotel bedroom with a spot of room service. Both are off-spinners, but of very different breeds. Warnaweera bowls briskly with a wild flailing of arms; Muralidaran, at 21, 11 years the junior, is more measured and imparts a greater de- gree of spin. He shows every sign of fulfilling the promise first revealed on the England A tour to Sri Lanka two years ago. Between them, they bowled Sri Lanka to victory against New Zea- land at this same ground in December, taking 13 wickets for 288 in the match. It was an enfeebled Kiwi side - the coach Warren Lees and five of his players having fled the capital on the in- substantial excuse of a single car bomb close to their team hotel - but Sri Lanka's joy at only their second series win since achieving Test status 12 years ago was not about to be diluted. New Zealand's captain, Martin Crowe, completed the Sri Lanka tour under duress, and his black mood was illustrated at the SSC when he accused Warnaweera of throwing. It was not the first time that it had been suggested that Warnaweera, employed by the state timber corporation, needed to make root-and-branch changes to his action. ''Everyone knew that Muri and Warnaweera were the dangers to New Zealand and this was just a tactic by Crowe to unsettle them,'' said Ranatunga. has never been called.'' Muralidaran, from the old hill capital of Kandy, is the only Tamil in the present Sri Lankan team. It is a side drawn from a wide spectrum, suggesting that the days of overreliance on the Colombo public school system is now well behind them. England's support for Sri Lankan cricket, even accounting for the wasted years of the civil war, has been embarrassingly lukewarm. This is their first return since Sri Lanka's inaugural Test in 1982 when Fletcher's side, just beaten in India, won by seven wickets. Ranatunga, now 29, is the only member of the Sri Lanka team who played in that game, while Emburey is the only England survivor. Ranatunga was a schoolboy at Anand College in Colombo, made a half-century in the first innings in dazed admiration, and caught up with his school work upon returning home. Ranatunga regards Sri Lanka's defeat against Australia at the SSC last September as a lesson so great that it has shocked them into maturity. In one of the greatest Tests since the second world war, Sri Lanka led by 291 on first innings, were eventually set 181 for victory and, despite reaching 127 for two shortly after tea, were bowled out by the spinners Warne and Matthews and lost by 16 runs. ''Spin has settled the last two matches here,'' Ranatunga said. never have a better chance to beat them.'' There were doubts yesterday over Chris Lewis's fitness because of a heavy cold. Dermot Reeve, the only member of the 17-strong England squad not to play a Test in India, was placed on stand- by. England preferred Malcolm to Taylor. Stewart, the wicketkeeper-captain, was scheduled to bat at No. 5. ENGLAND: Stewart (capt), Atherton, Smith, Gatting, Hick, Fair- brother, Lewis (or Reeve), Emburey, Jarvis, Tufnell, Malcolm. SRI LANKA: Ranatunga (capt), Mahanama, Hathurusinghe, Gurun- sinha, P A de Silva, Tillekeratne, A M de Silva, Muralidaran, Ramanayake, Warnaweera. Plus one from Jayasuriya, Liyanage and Wijesuriya. The Guardian 17 March 1993 - England turn on spinners - David Hopps Sri Lanka v England: Test match, rest day. David Hopps in Colom- bo finds doubt in the tourists' camp If Allan Lamb had been here, bristling with indignation over the perceived injustice of it all, the Pakistani ball-tampering row could have had a lively sequel today: the Sri Lankan chucking storm. As England's self-appointed guardian of cricket morals, Lamb might have paused only to announce that his entire fee was going to charity before openly accusing both Sri Lankan spinners of throwing. Without Lamb, who was heavily fined for his outburst and then not selected in the winter tour party, England's players res- tricted themselves during yesterday's rest day of the Colombo Test to private murmurings of discontent. No one was prepared to risk the Test and County Cricket Board's wrath. But it is a fact that many England players believe, right- ly or wrongly, that they could be bowled to defeat over the next two days by two spin bowlers - Jananda Warnaweera and Muttiah Mu- ralidaran - with illegal actions. Doubt over Warnaweera's action is nothing new. New Zealand's captain Martin Crowe openly accused him of throwing as the Kiwis plunged towards defeat at the same Sinhalese Sports Club ground in November. Crowe followed up by lashing a magnificent century, born out of fearsome ill-temper. It would be good to think that England, who began the fourth day uncomfortably placed, 28 runs behind with two Sri Lankan first-innings wickets remaining, could turn their indignation to similar effect. Even some Sri Lankan officials, in unguarded moments, have won- dered aloud about the legitimacy of Warnaweera's action, stretch- ing back to his appearance against Mark Nicholas's England B side seven years ago. His ungainly 14-pace run-up, completed by a brisk off-spinner, is unusual enough to invite suspicion. He privately dismisses this as another attempt to unsettle him, and at 32 he is too long in the tooth to take much notice. But whispers about Muralidaran, previously regarded as a talent- ed young innocent, are exclusively English. Ever since he first impressed Fletcher on the England A tour here two years ago (no accusations of throwing then), he has been a breath of fresh air, bowling more slowly and with more flight than any present English spinner. It is not surprising that he finds more turn as a result. Fletcher has wisely kept his own counsel, other than a general remark that policy throughout the tour and it would be counter- productive to start now. England's suspicions have been heightened by Warnaweera and Muralidaran's ability to turn the ball to a markedly greater de- gree on the first two days than Emburey and Tufnell did on the third. That invites the observation that the Indians made a habit of that during their 30 Test success. England's response is that the SSC pitch was initially much flatter than the Indian Test sur- faces. Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka's captain, defended his spinners be- fore the Test. Yesterday their manager, Duleep Mendis, again re- jected the allegations. ''Muralidaran is a matchwinner at 20 and is getting better all the time. He has bowled in England two years ago and has just returned from a tour of South Africa with no complaints. Warnaweera has never been called on visits to New Zealand, India and Sharjah.'' If no umpire has called either spinner for throwing, or even ex- pressed doubt officially to the appropriate authority, then Eng- land would be best advised to let the matter rest. It is not so long ago that Phil Tufnell suffered similar newspa- per allegations about ''a kink in his action'' from the former New Zealand wicketkeeper Ian Smith as he spun England to victory. If only the same would happen here . . . The Guardian 19 March 1993 - England rank with weakest in the world - David Hopps David Hopps on the ultimate ignominy of defeat in Colombo England arrived in India in late December proclaimed as the best-prepared touring team in history. They return this weekend as one of the weakest Test nations in the world, thrashed 3-0 in India and yesterday losing to Sri Lanka for the first time at Test level. Whatever inferences have been drawn in recent days about the bowling actions of Sri Lankan spinners, or even the inconsisten- cies of their umpiring, the source of England's fifth successive Test defeat - by five wickets shortly after tea on the final day - emphatically arose from their own technical and mental shortcomings. Sri Lanka's fourth win in 43 Tests - and their second in succes- sion - was richly deserved. It was celebrated by 7,000 specta- tors, at least half of whom had been given free admission at lunchtime, and by a man flinging firecrackers which made such a racket that it would have been no surprise, bearing in mind the country's recent civil disorder, if the army had not mistakenly declared another state of emergency. It would have been appropriate if the winning blow had been struck by Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka's captain, who was an overawed schoolboy when he made his debut in their inaugural Test against England 12 years ago and who has since greatly influenced his side's progress towards maturity. That did not quite come to pass. After staving off collapse with the impressive Tillekeratne, Ranatunga pushed Tufnell to short leg with only four needed for victory, leaving Jayasuriya to swing his first ball, from the same bowler, over square leg for six. Ranatunga's Test career has survived one of the bloodiest pas- sages in Sri Lanka's history as a campaign against the Tamil Tigers escalated into all-out civil war. In the late Eighties cricket only survived because of the unbreakable desire of its people. And to think that some of England's players feel hard done to because a spinner might have a bit of a faulty action. It is an attitude of gentle suburbia. Even when England clawed their way back into the game, reducing Sri Lanka to 61 for four in pursuit of 140 for victory, their complex about this defeat was evident. Tufnell, in particular, after being unfairly dismissed on the previous day, responded when bowling with a series of tiresome appeals that owed every- thing to a vivid imagination or the festering mind of a malcon- tent. It should be noted, therefore, that his first wicket was highly dubious, Hathurusinghe adjudged caught down the leg side by Stewart from a delivery which seemed to run off pad and thigh- pad. Umpiring errors this winter have not always run against Eng- land. Emburey's sterling resistance on the fourth evening stretched yesterday only to another two runs. He had batted for 2 1/2 hours, finding an unlikely companion for more than an hour in the last man, Malcolm, before he was bowled by Gurusinha. Sri Lanka's confidence about a meagre target of 140 was under- mined by memories of their defeat against Australia on this ground last August when they collapsed on a similarly worn sur- face to 164 all out and a 16-run defeat. Lewis was certainly in the mood to try to produce the improb- able. During a hostile new-ball spell he greeted Mahanama's wick- et, caught down the leg side, with three hyped-up punches of the air. He has had an excellent series. Spin was delayed until 43 for one, but Emburey, who spun Sri Lanka out with six for 33 here in 1981, struck with two wickets in his first five overs. He found appreciable turn, especially early in his spell, causing Gurusinha to chop on and having Ara- vinda de Silva caught behind square. Ranatunga's footwork initially did not inspire confidence, but Tillekeratne, still to be dismissed by England after three in- nings, again revealed great composure as well as reliable tech- nique. Twice square-driving Tufnell against the spin, and straight-driving Emburey, he was the antacid to remedy Ranatunga's churning stomach. Even then, at 98 for four, Ranatun- ga required a life when he pushed a firm chance off Emburey against Smith's outstretched right hand at silly mid-off. Tillekeratne's massive batting assurance has coincided with the decision that he should abandon his wicketkeeping role. That is food for thought, perhaps, for Alec Stewart. But, compared with the problems facing the team manager Keith Fletcher, it is as a single morsel in a king's banquet. One area upon which Fletcher will rightly place much emphasis is securing satisfactory itineraries for future overseas tours. This one has been a mess. It is not an age ago that England tours were deemed too long, instrumental in burning out international players before their time; now they are judged too short, preventing a satisfactory warm-up period before Test matches. Clearly there is a dichotomy here which must be addressed. What the Test and County Cricket Board should press for with ut- most conviction is that Test matches and one-day internationals be played in two distinct blocks, so allowing a touring party to adjust its personnel appropriately midway through a tour. ''I could envisage exchanging up to four players halfway through a tour,'' Fletcher said. Had that been the case this winter, Gower would have been virtually certain of selection for the In- dia tour, probably to be replaced by Fairbrother during the one- day series. Fletcher stressed: ''If we want an England side to perform well overseas then we have to sort out our itineraries. Paul Taylor has not played since the Calcutta Test and yet we may well want him to play in our last match on Saturday. That is ridiculous.'' Clearly there is a feeling that Gower's star must rise again. The bookmakers William Hill are offering 1-5 that he will play in one or more Tests against the Australians, which is as good as saying that they do not want to take any bets at all. They are also quoting Australia at 6-5 on to win the Ashes, with England 9-4 against. Pessimism abounds. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)